Tag: clouds

2014 Deck – Week 01

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography4 Comments

Welcome back to my Deck Project, a photography project of one photo for every week of the year, giving me 52 photos for the year. (and there are 52 cards in a Deck of normal standard cards, not counting Jokers, hence the name Deck Project)

I start the year at a very familiar place, the seawalls, living on the coastland of Guyana gives us easy access to the sea and the extensive shoreline.

Recently there was a discussion about how Guyanese (among many others) prefer to use pirated software instead of paying.  This has primarily to do with a difference in income levels and the cost of many software can easily exceed the salaries of the average or even above-average Guyanese.  The cost of such popular photo-processing software as Adobe Lightroom and Corel AfterShot Pro has declined in recent years making it more affordable, but the habit of acquiring pirated copies persists.  After this discussion I remembered Nikhil posting about an Open Source photo-processing software called LightZone, and I decided to give it a good try (even though I do own and use Adobe Lightroom)

This photo for the first week of the 2014 Deck Project was processed primarily in LightZone (but since I use Lightroom to interface with my website, I used Lightroom to tag/keyword and upload the image)  LightZone is surprisingly versatile and powerful, I think I’ll be using it  a bit more to experiment with some features as well as to encourage those who can’t afford Lightroom or AfterShot to try something that’s Free but also pretty powerful.

Canon 60D, Sigma 10-20mm  |  1/125s, f/8, ISO100, 10mm

Seawalls near Thomaslands, Georgetown

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

Pier

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, Poetry4 Comments

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery, along with many others in the Black and White Collection

Standing posts, by day’s light
Beaten by the waves
bleached by the relentless sun
Dwelt upon by snails

By moonlight, a ghostly pier
Appears ‘neath the moon
A vision that’s never seen
In day’s high noon

Stretching out into the deep
Walked upon by wraiths
boats with ancient passengers,
On the pier he waits…

Eyeing all who step ashore
Some will never leave,
Captain of his merchant ship,
Lord of the seas

Each night he walks the pier
Beneath the moon’s light
Each night the slaves come again
Reliving ghostly plight

The wraiths leave with the dawn
At peace once more
Until the rising moon
Brings them back to shore.

Black Flag

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography3 Comments

When I saw this flag, I knew I wanted a good photo of it, but never really processed it until now.  This was taken on a photowalk that the Guyana Photographer’s Facebook group did in January of 2013.

I think I agree with Nikhil that my definitive photograph involving Jhandi flags was this one from last year’s Deck Project, but if you’re going to photograph along the coastlands of Guyana, you most likely will end up with Jhandi flags in some images.

I don’t see the Black ones as often as I see the Red, Yellow and White ones.

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm  |  1/200s, f/10, 10mm, ISO100

Click on the image to see it in the Collection, along with others from the “Out and About” album

Fly

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography3 Comments

Something from last year 🙂  2013 was a good year, but then I think upon reflection, every year is a good year, there are always rough patches, but we live, we learn, we love, we laugh, we lose some hair, we leave behind the things we prefer not to follow us into the new year.

Where my photographs are concerned, I think I got a few good ones, a few great ones, but overall, I think I just got less time to go out and get photos from farther afield.  But I think that I did a fair job of the Deck Project.

For the new year, I encourage anyone reading this to “Fly”, spread your wings and soar above the troubles of the world and find peace within yourself, I will be trying to do this myself.

Canon T1i, Tamron 18-270mm  |  65mm, ISO 200, 1/320s, f/10

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with a few other Avian (Bird) Photos

2013 Deck – Week 52

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography, Poetry5 Comments

Skies above and oceans below,
Soar above the tethered boats
Down winding creeks and rivers brown,
Past piers, docks and abandoned forts.

Wind beneath my outstretched wings
Sun upon my feathered spans
Gliding, soaring, questing far
Over seas and distant lands.

See upon a curved horizon
Tree-lined coasts, and wave-swept beach
Flying high above ocean’s blue
Soaring forward, to sometime reach

A land with trees laden with fruit
Ponds and lakes with fish aplenty,
Seeking always rich lands afar
Always knowing, there will be many.

Returning home, back to my shore,
To mangrove clumps and fishing boats,
To fly along the creeks that wind
And from its waters, slake my throat.

Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery along with the entire collection for this Year’s Deck Project!

Pirai

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

On the way to Fort Island recently, the ferry we were on (the M.B. Sandaka) was accompanied by a Coast Guard cutter (I’ll assume it was a cutter, I don’t know one boat type from another really).

At one point there were some nice God Rays over the river which I noticed my friend Ryan taking photos of (he got a nice one the he posted to Facebook), so instead of trying to get pretty much the same photo, I tried to get one of the Coast Guard vessel with a few of the rays, it didn’t come out too bad 🙂

The cutter was marked PIRAI at the back (I think in boat lingo that would be the stern), Pirai is the local name for the fish Piranha.

Sepia conversion and processing done in Lightroom, also did some dodging on the cutter for effect.

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the Sepia Collection

2013 Deck – Week 49

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography2 Comments

It is almost shameful that I’ve lived all of my life upon these shores (with the few exceptions of travelling abroad), and the majority of my time has been spent in the City, when there are so many beautiful places to see across our land, but that is how life is, and I am thankful that I got to see the little that I have seen.

I’ve seen the Rainforest and the Rupununi Savannahs, the Pakaraima mountains, Orinduik Falls and Kaieteur Falls, but there is so much more to see…

Recently I was fortunate to be among a group of people who had dinner at Fort Island, photographically it wasn’t a great trip, but for me it was almost priceless.

My wife and I joined more than a hundred other patrons who dined outside the Court of Policy on the Island, and were entertained by the legendary Dave Martins and his friends.

I did manage to take some photos of the fort, but finding one without a dozen people in it was tough 🙂

I hope you like this one:

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2013 Deck – Week 48

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Many times, I just want to sit upon the seawall and not think… to just forget that there is a world where I have to work, where there is anything of purpose to be done… to just sit and stare out to sea.

The problem with me going and sitting and relaxing, is that it is at just those times, when my mind is almost blank that all the thoughts that I’ve been avoiding or maybe not even thinking about come rushing to the fore and I cannot block them out.

When I sit upon the shore and stare out to see, when I enjoy the sea-breeze, the open-ness of the ocean before me, I think, and my thoughts are somewhat clearer, less muddled…

This was one of those brief moments… and I took a photo to remind me to try once in a while to leave the world behind, and breathe.

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2013 Deck – Week 47

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography4 Comments

Every once in a while I will look at a scene and I would be moved to try to photograph it using the technique known as High Dynamic Range (HDR), and on even fewer occasions, I would look at the scene and think that it would make a good Black and White HDR.

I had just picked up my daughter from her “After-Classes” and we took a drive by the seawall, as soon as we pulled up and parked I saw the way the tide was out, and how the sky was over-cast with some low hanging clouds, I knew I wanted to try a few photos near the metal piling that’s been there for ages, and I thought it would render nice in HDR.

I tried to keep her from running ahead and getting footprints all over the area, but it wouldn’t have mattered, her footprints didn’t last too long in that mud 🙂

I tried a few angles around the sheet of metal, and decided after on this portrait oriented one, The way the shape of the puddle, the arc of the wet and dry sands (mud), the curve of the receding water-line and the straight horizon all clashed, made the scene seem more fluid to me.

I hope you like it. (Three exposures blended for an HDR image)

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2013 Deck – Week 46

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography2 Comments

On a midday walk with Nikhil, We had to pass a Hindu family on the Seawall who were conducting a ritual, supposedly to Mother Durga (Goddess Durga), because of the yellow Jhandi flag.

I didn’t want to intrude, so I took a photo from a distance (and subsequently cropped it for composition), I thought it was a scene that should be recorded (even if just for myself)

I’ve always seen the various Jhandi flags along the coast, but only recently decided to ask about the colour, specifically in this instance.  There is so much of the Hindu culture that is  unknown to most of us, and the significance of various rituals and items are lost on us.  I even tried searching the internet for Yellow Jhandi Flag, and got a Trinidadian website telling me that the yellow is for Lord Krishna, while a local hindu woman told me it was for Mother Durga and that it was customary to have it alongside a Red flag.

It’s not a great photo, but it is representative of part of our culture here in Guyana, and it is a period piece, with a modern mode of transportation in evidence 🙂  It is also a scene that I don’t see often enough.

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.